Stories that you confided to us
My name is Dmitry, I am 17 years old and this is a story about my hometown - Mariupol. I lived here all my life, but in 2022 Russia decided to destroy the lives of Ukrainians and turn it into an eternal nightmare. I will never forgive them for this act.
If you think that seeing dead bodies is not normal, Mariupol will tell you otherwise
(24.02)
Morning. 5:20, jumping from a very loud explosion and immediately falling to the floor, I saw a flash outside the window and realized that something was wrong here. Having entered the class group, I saw that the majority was no longer sleeping and the comments regarding what was happening were extremely sharp.
"Now we will calculate the trajectory of the shells", "How to sleep now?", "Today without school, it turns out?" - this is how our "good morning" sounded, with irony and misunderstanding of what is happening.
Sitting in a dark room without any understanding of what was happening, I leafed through the news pages. A couple of hours later, shells began to arrive on the outskirts of Mariupol and martial law was declared.
Without thinking for a long time, together with my mother, I went for groceries. There were crowds around with panic and fear in their eyes. After standing in line for a couple of hours, meeting familiar faces, and listening to the sounds of sirens and explosions on the outskirts, we returned home.
Dad was in Sartana and helped to evacuate people from there, in the late afternoon he was allowed to go home.
I spent the rest of the day following the news. Today I slept with my sister, in her room, it seemed to me that it would be safer, the room was located in another part of the apartment from the possible side of the arrival of shells. This is how my first day went.
(25.02)
I woke up in silence, my first thought was - "suddenly all this is a dream, an illusion", unfortunately I was mistaken.
I stayed at home all day, dad managed to go to the store and buy the remaining products there. Standing in line near the store, he heard a whistle and shouted to everyone to fall to the floor - the shell flew over them. In the meantime, we decided to fortify our apartment - to arrange at least some security for ourselves. We covered the windows and doors with blankets, propped them up with pillows and armchairs so that the blast wave would not completely knock them out and the fragments would not injure us. In the hall, we moved the sofa closer to the wall of the corridor, and in the corridor we laid a mattress and placed an armchair near the door. Our cat was impressed by this rearrangement and discovered new sleeping places.
Without any ideas what to do, I took, for the first time in a while, a guitar in my hands and decided to play.
I slept in the corridor with my sister, and my parents were in the hall. During the day, explosions were heard, sometimes it seemed that the shells were flying near the house, but I was wrong - for the time being...
(26.02)
Today I was woken up neither by an alarm clock, nor by the sound of the wind, and unfortunately not by silence...
I jumped from loud explosions. For two days, shelling of my area became more frequent, the frequency and sounds of explosions only intensified.
The day passed monotonously. Communication with people with whom you sometimes did not even communicate became more active. For the first time we went to the basement, sat there for about an hour and returned home. There was nothing left but to watch the events on the Internet - blown up equipment, houses, soldiers burned alive and the heroic deeds of our soldiers.
Basement
If the morning began with a few minutes of silence, you won a lucky ticket.
(27.04)
When rockets arrive at a school, residential buildings a few hundred meters from your house, you feel uneasy. It is not so much a matter of fear as of hatred for those who have come to our land.
On that day, electricity and water went out in my area, all that was left was gas and mobile communications. Candles have gained incredible value, like some other items. With the advent of darkness, we went to bed, because the morning began at five in the morning, just then, instead of morning roosters, we were awakened by deafening shots of GRADs.
(28.02)
Another day, another trial and incomprehensibility. Mobile communications began to decline - at home, mobile Internet caught badly, and it was possible to get through once. They began to jam communications and break up all communication bases that maintain communications in the city. The day passed tediously, a book and a guitar helped to while away leisure.
We found a radio at home, surprisingly it worked, it turned out to be distracted for a while. The radio was a godsend for us, but we never heard anything sensible.
Sometimes there were silence breaks, not a sound, but this silence could be interrupted by the neighbors by abruptly closing the door or boarding up the windows - a sharp noise frightened.
Toward evening, the shelling became more frequent, the windows were trembling, we had to go to the basement. They began to cover our area and already 100 meters from my house there were arrivals of shells.
(01.03)
Spring has begun, and the beginning is not very friendly and gentle. Actually, we decided to start pumping the basement, take some chairs, blankets and everything like that.
At lunch, we found a marshmallow at home, we decided to fry it on the stove. There were a lot of different things at home, but it was necessary to calculate everything: what made you want to drink more, what, on the contrary, is better to eat, and leave something for later.
After dinner, I made the last phone call, the sound was terrible, but the meaning was clear. In the evening, we again had to go down to the basement, unfortunately we had to sit for a couple of hours, because they specifically covered our area.
In the evening, the connection finally disappeared and now only gas remained. Closer to midnight, we returned to the apartment, from tonight hell began on the left bank of Mariupol.
(02.03)
Waking up from explosions has become habitual. Trembling glasses - it was already commonplace. Attempts to catch a connection were unsuccessful. Together with dad, we went to grandma, but rather ran. There was still light a few blocks away from us and it was possible to charge mobile devices. Even then, traces of explosions were visible on the street.
On the way home, moving in dashes, we noticed a woman sitting serenely in the alley, perhaps she "knew" some rules for surviving under shelling, since she acted in such a vein. Or perhaps she had nothing to lose.
Closer to dinner, the shelling became more frequent and sometimes there was a feeling that it had flown right around the house, unfortunately, the guesses were not wrong...
After another explosion, I saw a crowd from all over the yard. When I went outside with my dad, I saw the burning upper floors of the neighboring entrance of my house. There were no casualties. Without thinking for a long time, we went to help. People took out bottles of water, someone collected it from puddles (there was no water in the taps then).
Almost the entire yard took part in extinguishing the fire. I ran with full buckets of water to the upper floors to help in any way. Running to the ninth floor, I saw families standing in the entrance on each floor - there was pain and tears on their faces. In one of the burning apartments, I had to knock down the door, go in there in gas masks, with rags on my face and extinguish it - it didn’t help much. We did everything we could, but it was not possible to completely extinguish everything - the gas began to burn. The fire spread to the 9th floor, which burned until midnight. Firefighters arrived 10 hours after the explosion.
As dusk fell, it felt like you were filming an action movie and unfortunately the special effects were real...
Since that day, together with my family, I spent my time in the basement, sleeping there. At first it was unusual and very strange to be in such a place, but "fear has big eyes."
The basement was damp and cool, but with the appearance of a large number of people, from a simple and cold room, it turned into our warm protective shelter.
We made beds and benches from improvised materials.
By the way, now we don’t have gas either, it was turned off throughout the house so that the gas pipe in the sleeping apartments would not burst. And I’m generally silent about any connection, we were removed from the whole world.
(03.03)
Waking up in a cold basement wasn't as bad as it could be. After dinner, when everything was quiet, we decided to arrange a march to the grandmother.
Jumping over thorny fences, ripping off your skin to the blood, to the sounds of explosions, your nervous system receives a new spectrum of emotions. Especially when you run through the places you have loved since childhood, and they are blown up and burnt out.
On the way back, the silence ended and concretely began to pour, I had to sit down under the wall and squat forward. Between volleys we ran, so we returned to the basement. Slowly the temperature began to rise, the number of people began to increase. We pumped our basement, closed the holes, insulated ourselves with everything we could, closed the openings with various canvases. Although under us was not a flat and clean surface, but dusty, with some depressions, we held on and were in fairly comfortable conditions. Someone was able to bring a couple of mattresses that most of the kids slept on, my sister did too. They slept almost in an embrace, warming each other.
We made one bed out of bedding and blankets, there was also a chair and a sofa.
That night everyone fell asleep, I was the only one who did not sleep, taking advantage of the silence, I sat down to read a book. After a while, I began to hear the angry cries of a drunken neighbor in the entrance, people began to go crazy.
This began to irritate me and I wanted to go and calm him down, there were other people in the entrance who physically could not go down to the basement. Sitting on a bench, my back was numb and I decided at my own peril and risk to go to the apartment. Coming out of the basement, I watched the apocalypse, the sky was on fire, just like in the movies. Only it was reality, not a movie location. Running to the entrance, taking the keys in hand, I immediately headed towards my apartment. When I got home and closed the door behind me, I felt relieved. For the first time in a day, I came home, the apartment became cold, like a stranger. The first thing I saw was my sleeping cat on the couch. Together with him we fell asleep in the corridor. A couple of times I woke up and did not understand where I was, then the realization came.
(04.03)
At 5 in the morning, the silence broke, dad came for me and we ran to the basement, and that drunken peasant fell asleep imposingly on the stairs...
Most of the day I just lay, I couldn’t sleep. The syndrome of "prudence and thrift" has come. I practically did not eat, I was literally forced to eat. Parents cooked food in a neighboring house, neighbors, there was still gas. Through the entire basement, or rather the mirror floor, it was possible to move from one side of the house to the other.
After the fire in our house, the day before, on the other side of the house, the basement became damp and water flowed there. If we were relatively warm and fresh, nothing stank, then on the other hand it was just awful. As it turned out, there was a woman with a child who was a few weeks old, after learning about this, we began to bring her dairy products.
Waking up after a couple of hours of sleep, I noticed how guys my age and younger were playing cards, just talking. We spent the evening having fun, somehow diluting this atmosphere.
Closer to the night, a plane flew somewhere nearby and dropped a vacuum bomb, I thought the house would be blown away, everyone was shaken. All night we were terrified of explosions, they did not stop.
(05.03)
Another early morning in the basement.
You wake up and understand: nothing depends on you, you are just a speck of dust in all this horror.
A couple of times a day we went to the apartment, we were not there for a long time - if I knew that these were the last minutes of interaction with the apartment...
In the morning it was not too loud, as it was usually, so after breakfast, my dad and I moved out again to my grandmother. Moving not far from the house, we heard the conversations of people going to the meeting, something about the "green corridor". We walked again through the market containers, the doors of some were knocked out by the blast, all the contents inside could be taken, but we were not interested. In the process of crossing a high, thorny fence, I caught my gloves and scratched my hands until it bled, everything had to be done quickly. Approaching my grandmother, we again heard talk about leaving and finally decided that we need to try to do something - either today or never. In the yard we saw new destruction, and in the entrance we found a piece from a shell.
Grandma's house
One car was in the garage near my grandmother, and the other near the house. While dad was driving the car, I was collecting things, food, medicines. After loading my grandmother's things, the three of us got into the car and drove across the main street to our house to fetch our mother and sister. Even then, I observed burned-out apartments in houses, hanging wires, lying glass on the roads. I didn't pay much attention to it then. I had a goal to leave, and then everything else.
Having driven into the courtyard, people stood near the entrances, walked, did something. I ran home and told my mom to get ready. My sister ran to the basement to get a couple of backpacks.
I ran non-stop, carrying bags in cars. I did not know what was in the bags and suitcases, I just acted as a porter. Only later we realized that we didn’t take a lot of things dear to our souls - these are albums, photographs, some other things. Painfully? How do you think?
I forgot to say, the situation escalated, having arrived home, constant shelling began again, it was GRADs. Having loaded the whole car, we said goodbye to the neighbors, gave them the keys to the apartment so that they could take any things and products necessary for survival, and set off.
Driving along the road with ruins on the way, I said goodbye to the house, I did not think that it would be forever...
We drove through the main streets of the left bank of Mariupol, everything looked like in a nightmare - an extinct city.
The fact is that we couldn’t leave on our own, we went after our friends. They were a couple of kilometers from our house, in the hospital. Sergey's parents, my friend from birth, worked there and were there almost from the very beginning. When we arrived, we signaled that it was time to leave, they got into their car and drove after us. Our car started to stall and, driving away from the hospital, we had to push it. All movement around the city was accompanied by the sounds of shelling. We drove to the center along the embankment along the Azovstal plant.
Approaching the bridge between the banks of Mariupol, we stumbled upon a post of our military near the plant.
Many cars tied white rags on the cars, but the military gave a sign that this was unnecessary, because today we know what this means. Having passed, we wished good luck to our guys and moved on.
We went to another grandmother, she did not expect to see us. All this time there was no connection with us and she did not know how we were and whether we were alive at all...
After a few walks with suitcases and saying goodbye to the neighbors, we left. Arriving in the city center, to the drama theater, we began to walk and find out the details of this "green corridor", but the patrol police car debunked these gossip. There was no exit from the city, it was closed due to massive shelling and attempts to surround Mariupol with "orcs".
So we had to return to the grandmother, already near the city center. Here, too, there was no electricity, no communication, but there was still some water in the filter and gas.
Arriving at my grandmother, we unloaded the necessary things from the cars and sat in the apartment for a couple of hours. Later, my dad and I went in search of water. To be honest, the atmosphere was "calm". Yes, there were arrivals, some explosions, smoke. But it was all at a distance. The entire infrastructure in the center was basically intact. People were frightened by these sounds, for us it was already familiar, we saw it even worse.
After standing for more than an hour to collect 3 bottles with water, we returned home.
In the evening we played checkers with a boy from a neighboring apartment, and then talked for a long time in the kitchen, they spent the night in my grandmother's apartment, together with us.
It was the first calm and warm night in a week - I did not sleep in a cold basement, but in a warm bed. Of course there were explosions, but it was remote. I had no idea what kind of hell was happening at that moment on the left bank.
(06.03)
Waking up not from explosions is something new. It was relatively calm, I woke up not from someone's screams, not from the cold or something else. I woke up in a warm bed, it was great.
After breakfast, I noticed that the gas was finally over and I realized that a fun life begins. After a hearty breakfast, around 11, in a group of 3 people, we moved out for water. On the way, we came across an open pharmacy, a whole one, where the military stood and distributed medicines to those in need. People were arrogant, pushed, walked out of turn - the military had to shoot in the air in order to somehow calm them down. Today we took water in another place, in the center, near the water canal. The queue was quite long, for the first hour in the queue I heard more than one flight. Somewhere nearby there was some kind of installation that every couple of minutes gave heat to the "orcs". Someone was afraid of these sounds, but I understood that these were not arrivals, I had already learned something...
I saw men carrying solar panels - it was strange and I wondered. It was not the first hour in line and, unexpectedly, I saw a familiar body passing by, my friend. He went by so fast that I didn't even have time to call out to him. I knew that I would most likely see him again in the near future. Less than an hour later, he was walking back, his name is Sasha, by the way, I ran to him. It was a sincere joy to meet a familiar person, we talked for about an hour, watched how people carry stolen things, huge bags of alcohol, and several times.
People went berserk, that herd feeling, when everything is allowed to you - come in and take it, it is not easy to wean yourself from this later.
We continued to communicate, the queue increased several times, and Sasha said that his mother was already almost at the beginning and that we could carefully come there. We walked about 100 meters in line. We collected a whole canister and about 8 bottles of water. I helped Sasha and his mother carry water home, and then returned to my family.
Tired, approaching the yard, we noticed a crowd near the car. Coming closer, I noticed how several people were getting boxes out of the car, as I understood one of them was the owner. The boxes contained seeds and mayonnaise. I filled my pockets with packets of mayonnaise and took two boxes of seeds. When I got home, I realized that we only had 4 of them. Two boxes with packs of 225 grams, one for 150 and another for 75.
It was a good day, but the shooting did not decrease.
(07.03)
New day, new challenges. Wake up, stretch and get to work. The morning began with a fire in the yard, and there were several such places. Slowly, these places were pumped, increased. Someone even had a huge samovar.
Around 10 am we moved out again for water. Today we decided to go to another place, to the well behind the Edelweiss market. All the way we were accompanied by the sounds of departures and arrivals. Passing the private sector, I saw some grandfather fall, I managed to fall first and catch him so that he would not hit his head on the asphalt. We helped bring him into the house and moved on.
We began to notice looted and completely broken shops.
There was also a rumor that there were already "orc" tanks on Cheryomushki. We met a policeman, apparently he didn’t know what to do himself, asked him for this, to which he replied, “Yes, it’s true, they tried to break through for a couple of days, but they were all killed there.” We moved on, all the yards became absolutely identical: fires, cooking, firewood.
Having reached the well, we stood in line, today it was not as big as yesterday. We didn't have many bottles today, so together with a friend we decided that we could manage without us - I wanted to go closer to the center and see what was happening there. We were allowed and we moved out. Passing near the market, we saw a large crowd of people, at the once working plant "Roshen", apparently there was some kind of shelter. Two days earlier, my dad and I went there to see what and how. We walked further and every couple of meters we saw looted pharmacies and shops.
We walked further and every couple of meters we saw looted pharmacies and shops. We went to some, in one of the hardware stores, some guy came up to us and started asking us for help breaking into some ATM. People had their own plans during the war. For whom is the war, and for whom is the mother...
I understood perfectly well that looting could not be avoided, but why break windows, scatter everything. It's still open access anyway. In each hardware store there were only covers, there were a lot of them. I also noticed broken phones, I wondered why? I understood the case for these covers no one and decided to look for a cover, mine was already killed. I found a suitable one and we moved on. We saw broken stalls, where already empty and broken bottles of alcohol lay in front of them.
People really freaked out. Two men with full hands of equipment came to meet us and told us - hurry, hurry, there are still...
Approaching this store, I noticed that a grate was cut through from below and climbed through it, and then I notice how some kind of scooter was being pulled out of the store through them, and huge plasmas were being carried across the road. I felt ashamed of these people. I admit, I also committed the wrong offense, I took this headphones because I left mine at home. They lay in a bunch already on the street, there were all sorts of watches, bigger headphones, but I didn’t need it. A little further on I found the PROSTOR store, I expected to find wet wipes. The windows were broken there, and they climbed through these openings. Apparently this happened recently and all the regiments were still intact, in the majority. We found sponges and pads, napkins could not be found.
People took their perfume, idiots.
While still inside, I hear screams and everyone starts to run closer to the exit. They shout "Military, military." Everyone starts pushing and screaming. Seryozha shouts to me, he was on the street, and I calmly stand and wait for the crowd to come out.
It is necessary to remain calm, those who stuff their pockets full of completely unnecessary things are panicking. Probably some perfume for 70 hryvnia will help to live in a city that is under bombardment every few minutes. Finally getting out of there, I took the situation into my own hands and we moved on without panic.
We decided to go towards the Central Department Store. Upon entering, the situation was no different. Mirror was all looted, leaving only rotten food and cheap alcohol. Somehow, we magically found a bottle of prosecco there and decided that it would be a gift for mothers on March 8th.
Climbing up to the second floor, I decided to look at my favorite clothing store in TSUM - "Oodji". Well, everything was turned upside down, of course there were still clothes, but people continued to rob everything.
I wanted to go to the drama theater and see what the situation was like there. There were large barrels in which people made fires and cooked food. They set up their place pretty well. We visited the skating rink, people took all the boards from the fence to the fires. A couple of weeks ago we rode it with friends.
We went to another hardware store and not for some valuable things - I was looking for toilets, and in them, respectively, toilet paper, some household chemicals, and sometimes I managed to get it.
Moved towards the "thousands", I met the mother of a familiar girl, it was joyful, familiar faces.
Then we saw how people broke stores, climbed into them. But we couldn't do anything about it. Punishing physically is a good idea, but the situation was a little different.
We went into the building, there was some kind of small office, there were whole plasmas, computers, and it was all whole. I sent Sergey to the toilet for paper, and I myself began to look for batteries, candles, matches. Suddenly a woman came out to us, apparently she used to work here, we talked with her, she also did not understand people who destroy and break everything. What a joy it was when I found the batteries, perhaps there could be found something else useful, but we did not have time to rummage there for a long time. We went further and again met Sasha with her mother. You can't express those emotions when you meet people you know. We saw a completely burnt three-story building, apparently it flew there quite well.
And then Sergey decided to go to the office of the party of our president. To be honest, I saw the light when I went there, everything was whole and not a soul. Lots of computers, but that was not our goal. We went to the warehouse, in some room there were balls, t-shirts, some equipment and then we found a small kitchen. In the nightstands there were packages of sweets, a huge and whole package with tea bags. The guys also had a hookah and unfinished bottles of alcohol there. In general, there were about 6 rooms and a lot of things, but we only took tea, sweets, a 20-liter empty baklakha and a bag of wooden chopsticks for tea or coffee (and they came in very handy).
Then we went to the "Glutton", there it was already more and more civilized. There were a couple of patrol cars and the military at the entrance. They were allowed to enter, but they checked who took what. We went down to Natalie, I wanted to take some book, we took a couple and a monopoly (however, of these three, I read only one in full and I really liked it - "rush to love").
And so we decided to return home, it was about 4 kilometers to the house, on the way we went to some more stores, but everything was broken. I expected to find matches and candles.
The clock was already about 17 and the shelling became more frequent. Passing by one house, I saw pieces of an exploding shell, a burned floor and a lot of blood on the pavement. Finally we got home with full bags.
The day went well, we were tired, arms and back just fell off. I saw and understood a lot that day.
I realized that someone takes care of themselves and others, takes what they need and in moderation. And someone does not care about the rest - they take more and more expensive, in order to get rich later. But what kind of money can we talk about when at any second you can lose your life.
(08.03)
The day began with work in the yard, I went outside to collect firewood. Although looting flourished in the city in parallel with explosions and destruction, there was a shop on the other side of our house, and my dad and I went there closer to dinner to buy the fruits and vegetables that were left there. The store worked for a long time, people spent the night in it and guarded it. Products were brought there from warehouses.
It seems to me that this was the only working store in our area, apart from the market. In any case, despite the constant explosions, there was a queue outside the store. Suddenly a car pulls up, the soldiers get out and start handing out some boxes. They distributed two frozen pieces of salmon to each person. And people opened the boxes, there was another fish, they already took it as much as they wanted. I didn’t have time to take the salmon, but I got 5 pieces of another fish out of the box. People were pushing, crowding. Although I approached one of the first salmon, I did not get it. Of course, I could start pushing everyone and sort things out - but what's the point? With food, thank God, everything was in order.
Today I wanted to go to the center again, but they didn't let me in. Although the shelling was not as massive as on the left bank, nevertheless, in a couple of days they became more frequent. And already in our vicinity I noticed new funnels and smoke. After lunch I worked out at home and read a book. In the evening we had a delicious dinner, because today is March 8th. We gave our mothers a bottle of champagne, which we brought yesterday. Cooked pasta, some meat and a delicious salad. Thus ended the day.
(09.03)
Today I feel like a professional worker at a sawmill. From late morning until evening I worked with wood: I dismantled various wooden objects with an ax, hammer, crowbar and even a chainsaw. Yes, one man had a chainsaw and I asked him to try it out.
A volunteer center worked not far from us, the city is bombed, but people still help, I thought this was only in films.
A few days ago we wrote a sheet for the help we needed and today we had to go get help. I went with my grandmother, and her neighbor went with us. After standing there for a long time, I had to duck down at the walls several times, because the planes already felt at home. In addition to planes and explosions, I watched the incredible military on no less cool cars. I was lucky to see "Taira" live. I got bored of standing there and I decided to go to the center, to the drama theater. On the way, I observed debris on the roads, more destruction and people in a hurry. Near the drama theater there was a car where people could get water. The picture was the same as in our yard, people were trying to survive by cooking on fires. Passing by the Central Department Store, I noticed the military standing at the entrance, who drove everyone out of there. The problem was that there was nothing to protect, everything was taken out there. When I returned, I stood there for some more time and we decided to go home, we understood that today we would not get anything.
(10.03)
Today was a hell of a night, getting up several times a night and going out into the corridor has become a custom. Loud explosions and planes gave us nightmares most of the night. If a couple of days ago we slept in different rooms, now everyone slept in the hall, someone on the floor, someone on the couch. When planes dropped bombs, windows and doors shook.
Closer to dinner, my parents and Seryozha's mother went to fetch water. We went again to a new place, it was a spring behind the CASCADE, again I saw Azovstal, it was in full view. Collecting water in eggplants, I heard the sounds of aviation and a minute later I saw two planes - a fighter and a bomber. They flew between Ilyich and Azovstal. For about 5 minutes, I observed the constant winding circles in the sky and the release of infrared countermeasures. Slowly we began to climb back up the mountain, returning home. I walked with bottles and a cart, it was low and it was inconvenient to carry it. And so the planes decided to approach us, they were very close and at times we had to sharply throw bottles and run to the wall. I was walking along the road, and my parents were under the walls of houses. With a cart, it would be extremely difficult and long, so I had to roll it in the middle of the road. At one of these moments, the sound of the planes began to increase sharply: I put down the cart, start running towards the wall, I notice how the eggplant with water falls and spills, I run to put it back in place and rush back to the wall. I almost lie down on the ground under some bricks, and in a second there is an explosion of a bomb thrown from an airplane somewhere nearby. It was loud and scary. They flew a little further and, taking advantage of the moment, we walked on at an accelerated pace. We went home, and dad went back to the volunteer center. Today he managed to pick up what we asked for, there was some food and medicine.
The owners of the warehouse came to our yard for several days in a row and brought products for sale. Grandmother knew them, they were the suppliers of her store, and today we managed to buy meat and fish. According to tradition: no day was complete without chopping firewood. He managed to grapple with a drunken neighbor, he began to make claims to the wrong person.
Toward evening, civilian volunteers drove into the yard, they managed to take detergent, cookies, toilet paper and toothpaste.
Despite the smokescreen, Mariupol continued to amaze with its beauty.
(11.03)
Tonight was more fun than the previous one: planes again and more intensively. Something, but aviation is scary. From one of the explosions, somewhere nearby, part of the window in one of the rooms flew out. Snow had been falling for several days, on the one hand it was good - after all, there was at least some water, but on the other hand, it could freeze very quickly. It was cold in some rooms, but in general, being constantly in the hall and in the kitchen, we maintained the temperature. Today dad wanted to go to the left bank to our friends home, their cats stayed at home. In addition, he wanted to take food to our neighbors, because on the left bank they had not heard about help for a long time.
Although the left bank was no longer bombed by planes, because the entire infrastructure had already been destroyed, however, street battles were fought there. The military said that the passage was closed and the embankment was mined, so nothing happened. We decided to go to the grandmother's shop, it was located behind the bus station. Arriving with dad and grandmother to him, we found a cut through the grate. I pushed it aside and climbed inside. Everything was broken, scattered, broken. I was horrified, really it was impossible to just take it and leave, why break everything? I found a couple of chocolates, juice and detergent. I didn’t have time to walk around there, so I took what came across. Having climbed over the window sill under the grate, I managed to catch my forehead on the grate and cut my hands with glass. The rest of the day I exercised at home, cooked, played checkers and read.
(12.03)
As usual, planes were honking at night, but I was already tired of going out into the corridor and just covered myself with a blanket and hoped for a miracle. The window was in the role of a TV: you see a flash and after 3 seconds an explosion. One day at night, the light from the searchlights hit the window. It happened very quickly and we thought it was helicopters, but we couldn't hear them at all. As it turned out, our helicopters really flew to Mariupol.
Surprisingly, it was quiet in the morning, we found out that people were carrying foam from a construction warehouse, collecting a team of 4 men, we headed there. As a result, we got two glass wool and a package of paper. Our friends took it home, I, in turn, went to the church with my dad, people said that it was picking up a connection, but we didn’t manage to catch it. At night it flew well that the window in the room flew out even more. Arrived 150 meters from our house. At the back of the house, 90% of the glass was broken. Approaching the house, we found a place where we arrived, in a private house, in fact, only bricks and smoke remained from it.
At the Oktyabr plant, which was opposite our house, there were our equipment, some installations and our military, so this whole square was heavily shelled. We felt every arrival, but it was all trifles, up to a certain point.
For several days, my dad and I went to the car to listen to the news and charge the phone. It was not possible to charge a lot, but in 10 minutes a little accumulated. A few minutes before 11 o'clock, dad decided to go listen to the news, I said that I would go with him. Basically, the main information was announced at the beginning of each hour, so a minute before 11 we went out into the yard. People stood by the fire, talked, walked, rode on a swing with children. There was a movement that these days has become familiar. Everyone became friends and every day they went out to talk. However, everything was covered with a copper basin.
Dad and I get into the car, I plug the wire into the phone and hear a deafening explosion. It feels like the car jumped a couple of centimeters. We open the car doors, and I see a man lying close to the car.
He fell and covered his head. I go out, turn around and see hell. Everything is covered in dust, a cloud of dust has risen above the five-story building. A mortar shell flew in, literally 10 meters away. We begin to run to the entrance under the wall of the garages, I see a woman with a child lying like a soldier on the ground, and a minute ago they were walking.
I hear the whimpering cry of a man and see him lying, and next to him is a severed and bloody leg.
Then I see more bodies that are being dragged away, and they are screaming. Having run to the entrance, I managed to inhale the dust and see that there is no glass in the windows of the entrance now. We run into the entrance and I hear screams. Climbing up to our floor, I notice a guy on the stairwell, he was standing with his hands pressed to his face, his whole face was a continuous bloody mess, blood was flowing from his face and a small puddle formed under him.
I had to pass quickly, from the window you could still see a raised cloud of dust. Among the crowd of people, I saw a sitting girl whose knee was being examined, I thought it was my sister, but fortunately I was wrong. It was the girl from the floor above, her knee was fine. My family and our friends were not injured, but when I entered the apartment, I calmed my crying sister for a long time, she almost screamed: at the time of arrival, she was sitting in the entrance and saw the guy fly off and fall, and then her whole face turned into a continuous mess.
The boy is seriously unlucky. He stood near the window and drank coffee, at the time of arrival, glass fragments hit him in the face and mouth. The tongue was cut, as were the lips and the whole face. A team of volunteers came to our yard with several doctors from the volunteer center where we went. A surgeon came up to us, who was also a dentist, basically he did all the work. And a volunteer and my godfather, with medical knowledge, assisted. This guy had his tongue and lips sewn up with almost no painkillers, I can’t imagine the pain.
A few days later, that surgeon was delivering in the dentistry.
After a while, everything calmed down. As a result of the arrival, 7 people died. However, someone said that about 12 died. Among the dead were 2 children - a four-year-old and even less.
The bodies of the children were brought into the garage, and the corpses of adults lay on the street. A few days later, these children were buried right in the yard.
As it turned out, this guy who was being sewn up, his mother's sister died. They said it was torn to pieces...
I consider this day my second birthday. The realization of what happened does not come immediately, but when you realize the whole situation, you become uneasy. A few seconds decide whether you live on or not. Even the most seemingly harmless 82-mm mortar brings terrible consequences. A matter of a few seconds and my dad and I would be in the place of these people.
(13.03)
The morning was not the same as usual, there was some kind of load inside. Thoughts on the previous day. The bodies continued to lie on the street, the head was covered with something.
It was getting colder outside and it was snowing.
After yesterday's incident, no one dared to go out into the street. There were passers-by who walked around the yards, they photographed the bodies and the consequences of the explosion.
Some neighbors moved to the basement, but we preferred the apartment. After everything that happened, I realized that the basement would not help much. If some bomb comes from an airplane, there will be no house. We took a brazier from neighbors and put it on the porch of the house. It's scary, but you need to eat something.
I chopped firewood in the entrance and we cooked delicious cakes, porridge and potatoes. At first, everyone was afraid, but then they began to ask to use the barbecue. But this happened after we fired it up.
Drinking alcohol, discussing everyone and smoking is the maximum that weak people are capable of in extremely difficult situations.
Such people try to use the rest, and warm their ass in a warm place, of course, they could not do without them. After spending most of the time in the apartment, I read, played checkers again and went in for sports. So I tried to kill the daytime.
We went to bed early because wasting candles was not a good idea. Even in the evening it was quieter than at night. Planes continued to fly in batches and throw shells.
(14.03)
Today we again sat at home and did not stick out into the yard. The bodies continued to lie. Reading, cooking - daily routine.
Although I was not allowed to go out, but I was stubborn and went out to sweep the porch, everything was in glass, and one of our cars was right under the windows and that day it suffered a little. A piece of the mirror protection fell off, the windshield cracked a little and there were many single dents left.
I swept some glass out from under the wheels, but most of the glass was frozen to the ground. Flattening the tires was not the best idea. Taking into account the fact that some cars had all the windows blown out and the tires went down, we got off very lightly.
In the evening, we decided to somehow dilute the atmosphere and played cities at the table.
(15.03)
Airplanes greeted us again tonight. I practically didn’t get enough sleep, most of the night I had to sit in the corridor, and then in the entrance, it was terribly cold there.
In the morning we cooked borscht and cakes, I would say that in these conditions we ate great.
Closer to dinner, the police came to the yard, our dads helped load the corpses into the car. Finally, the lying bodies were removed from the yard. However, new bodies appeared on the streets outside our yard. They lay on the roads and no one cared about them.
As it turned out, one of the neighbors played the guitar superbly and today I decided to sit and listen. Sitting against the wall and listening to the guitar picking, you forget about everything that is happening. A small distraction until the next explosion and a reminder that the war continues.
In the evening, civilian volunteers again drove into our yard. It turned out to take a lot of candles and wet wipes. As well as metal plates in which we heated water for evening procedures. Remember when I found a pack of tea sticks on March 7th? So with raw fuel on the stove, they are ideal for heating water
(16.03)
This morning started early, together with my grandmother and Seryozha, we again went to the construction warehouse, from there people dragged polystyrene. We managed to take several blocks of polystyrene, with which we then sealed the windows in the entrance, because the frost did not subside. However, after each flight of the aircraft, the shock wave knocked out all our efforts.
A little later, my dad and I again decided to go to the center, try to catch a connection. On the way, we stopped by to read the news, near the volunteer center we glued daily reports. However, for Mariupol, we did not see any clarity, we were in a fog against the background of other cities. Near the church there were people who even managed to send some messages, at least I thought so.
People massively began to try to leave the city on their own - by car, on foot. All hopes about the green corridor have long faded.
My dad and I concluded that we need to try to get out of here, otherwise there will be no cars soon with such a pace. Returning home, we came under mortar fire, they covered our quarter, somewhere nearby. We had to run several times and almost fall over some barriers. People stood to themselves and calmly reacted to all this. We gradually made our way through the yards to our home. In one of the runs across the central streets, I saw the Elizabeth shopping center in the central market on fire.
It was also amusing for myself to mark such a picture: one day you come through some buildings and they are absolutely intact, and the next day only a pile of stones remains from them.
We thought about taking a chance and trying to leave the city today, but time was running out towards evening, and we postponed this venture to the next day.
After lunch, we decided to go with the neighbors and get technical water. There was something like a vault, the sewer hatch was already open. It was across the street from the house. Taking on water, we saw a large stream of cars, which, apparently, drove out of the city, as well as our wrecked tank, but still on the move. In order not to be bored, we were accompanied by the sounds of GRADs, mortars and airplanes.
Today is Serezha's birthday, we made a cake of condensed milk and cookies, it was insanely delicious.
(17.03)
Another morning in blockade. In the morning we were again sitting in the entrance, as usual. The morning began not with a cup of coffee, but with flying planes. After the planes, shelling from mortars appeared and one of the shells again flew into our yard, only not into the asphalt, but into the house opposite - the shell broke through the roof. I did not even feel the arrival in the yard, each arrival seemed very close.
After a short lull, we began to slowly collect things, since we unloaded almost everything from the cars into the apartment, now we had to load it all back. I swept the road for the car to leave, since there was solid glass around it and the chance of a tire puncture was not small. We began to slowly demolish things, sometimes we had to run sharply into the entrance, because the shelling became more frequent.
Neighbors walked around and pretended to help, but their views were understandable to me. Lowering each bag, I thought where and how we would go, how dangerous it was. Finally, we collected all the things, loaded them. It only remained to pick up the cats: our cat was seated quietly, and my grandmother's cat climbed into the sofa - I had to disassemble it and turn it over, of course, she scratched my hands.
Having given the keys to a neighbor, we plunged and began to leave the yard. I saw school No. 66, only beams remained from the second and third floors, there were practically no walls.
Having left the main street and going up to the drama theater, we saw a tank - it was our tank. It didn't look hit, but the muzzle looked straight in our direction, it was scary.
Having passed the tank and drove to the ring, I saw the drama theater, it was destroyed the day before. Yesterday I saw him whole, but today there is practically nothing left of him...
From all sides I saw smoke, flames, dust. The entire road was strewn with glass, collapsed wires and burnt cars. We drove through an empty, but burning city, and with every second the situation was heating up.
We went to the seaside area to fetch our great-grandmother, she lived in a private house. Approaching, we saw houses with through holes. Lots of burnt-out cars, completely burnt-out houses and blanks from rockets sticking out in the pavement. We took our great-grandmother, but my uncle refused to go with us and stayed there to guard the house.
In this area, automatic bursts were heard, I knew that the city was already under blockade and sometimes I heard shots even in the center, but here they sounded very close, perhaps even on neighboring streets. We headed to the exit from the city in the direction of Melekino, we had to go around a lot, wires hung everywhere, and in some places there was simply no road. We drove at our own risk without any information. I heard a couple of stories that the columns were shot, and someone told me that they were letting them out. We concluded that there would be no cars for a few more days, so we had to go.
What's the difference where to die, so at least we'll try, and then suddenly it will work out.
At the exit from the city, we gathered a column of cars and drove off. Burnt-out equipment and Russian soldiers stood at the checkpoint. These uncouth soldiers stopped cars, undressed men, tried to check everything. We have specially distributed people in three cars. I sat with my mother and grandmother in one, my father with my sister and the other grandmother in the second car. And in the third car sat our friends and great-grandmother. I turned off the phone, it was two percent and put it in my backpack. I was frightened when I saw that people were being undressed, and it was cold outside. It's not about the temperature, but about the money that had to be shoved wherever possible. From hamster cages to underwear. Lucky we weren't even stopped. We drove on, I watched the movements of these soldiers, they themselves did not know what to do.
The stolen cars were already plastered with "Z" emblems.
At the second post, we were not searched either, we were only stopped. But I saw how a box with a huge number of packs of cigarettes was pulled out of one minibus, maybe more than 100 packs. And a crowd of soldiers rushed to unpack it all. Animals. Between posts, I put the phone on charge, having stopped in Mangush, I got a connection and I started calling people with whom I kept hourly contact until the connection was broken.
When people saw someone coming from me, they almost started shouting into the phone: "Dima, God, you're alive."
In Mangush, the convoy was kept for about an hour, they had some kind of shift change, but in fact there was simply nothing to do and they blocked the road.
A little later, we drove and a man with his son was standing on the side of the road, they knocked on our window and offered hot, freshly baked bread and water, for free. Biting off a piece of bread, we almost cried. I took the money, got out of the car and wanted to thank them, but they refused. Despite the large number of "little green men" on the street, people still helped.
We realized that we would not have time to reach at least Berdyansk, the column was too large and, by great fortune, we had the opportunity to stop in Urzuf. This morning my mother's employee left work and they helped us with accommodation for the night, and the next day we had to go further together.
Arriving in Urzuf, I charged the phone a little and finally got in touch. All social networks were squealing messages. People recorded almost farewell videos and cried that I didn’t get in touch, and in the evening I write, to say that they were amazed is to say nothing.
We finally took a hot shower. You can't imagine what it's like to take a hot shower after 3 weeks without water.
I had time to sit on the phone and tell at least a little about what is happening in Mariupol. Soon I went to bed, because after two hours it was already necessary to wake up, at 5 o'clock we had to go. Falling asleep in complete silence and waking up not from explosions is something unreal, I did not believe in it.
Early in the morning we moved out in a column of 7 cars. Our goal was Zaporozhye. The road was long, not in distance, the reason for that was stops every couple of minutes, because for every 300 meters they put several "orcs" who stopped cars and wished a good road - creatures.
They smiled and wished a good day. And I wanted to spit in the face of these scum.
They looked worse than us in Mariupol without any good conditions. At one of the posts in front of Berdyansk, there were Buryats, such little guys. Which could be broken piece by piece, if not for the weapon in the hands. These idiots weren't taught how to properly hold their weapons and not point them at people. I decided to play peepers with him, in the end he turned away and left - was it embarrassing or something? During the entire journey we were stopped 40 times, if not more. And the stops were for a couple of seconds.
Also, these guys poured gasoline and sold it, but of course, you need to earn money somehow, you can’t earn that much in Russia. Grandfathers were sitting there at the gas station with bandaged legs and hands, without any weapons and equipment. Just camouflage and that's it, worse than homeless people. And their hypocritical smiles were annoying.
In several settlements I saw how they robbed shops, carried bottles of milk somewhere, I hope they got poisoned.
Some asked us for cigarettes and a light, we didn’t have any of this, we don’t smoke, and if we smoked, they would throw poison there.
And at one of the stops we were asked for pills from the stomach, I was simply carried away there with laughter, apparently someone had already been poisoned, or expired rations. They found fault with the green backpack, I look for any object for them - this is military. They took the ax, and they also wanted us to get all our cutlery, they say it is piercing and cutting. I think they would cut themselves with these devices.
In each village, these soldiers set up samovars and made a fire for the pots. We came to rest at the resort, rest and then fertilize with black soil. In the meantime, there were several settlements left before Zaporozhye, and we were warned by "good" Russian soldiers that active battles were being waged there, they say, be careful and do not linger in Zaporozhye, because they will come there soon. Passing the last settlement, we noticed a destroyed bridge, as we were told there was a minefield around and we had to go through it. Nearby was a bypass across the field and we stopped on it.
A large column was formed and after a while it went. I started to see the military waving and yelling at us to go faster without any stops. That's the whole difference between the "orcs" and our military.
A little more and I saw our flag, finally I exhaled and realized that I was at home, in Ukraine.
Thus, I survived in a city blocked from the whole world. I tried to keep a diary so that later I could show the whole world what was really going on.
A few days later, at the end of March, I saw that my house and my grandmother's house burned down completely, now we have nothing left.
Our further path is not so important, because this is a story about the days in Mariupol.
I lost a lot - my home, city, relative, I was separated from my friends, and most importantly, I experienced a horror that no one deserves. He lost a lot, but saved his life on the verge of death.
People who say such a phrase: "the main thing is that you survived, and the rest will still be" - I hope you will never experience this. You are right that the main thing is life, but you can never erase the imprint and take away the pain that the war left.
Live and fight for our independence, because good always wins, and good is on our side.
The Russians will remain hostages of the regime, even when their ruler leaves, until they can get up off their knees.
Today I am building a non-breakthrough fence and I say: Russian ship - go fuck yourself!
Do not be silent - speak up, help as soon as possible and soon, of course, we will achieve our goal. We will win! Glory to Ukraine!
When quoting a story, a reference to the source – the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation – is mandatory, as follows:
The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/
